NAIROBI, Kenya —Land is an emotive issue in Kenya because it is perceived to bear significant political, economic, socio-cultural, and developmental value on the people’s lives.
Many administrative measures have been proposed throughout the years, including taxes on idle land, ownership caps, and restrictions on land subdivisions.
Even so, the Kenya Kwanza government, currently in power, was convinced before its election that they must have land title deeds to ensure that every Kenyan can secure their land rights and ownership.
Issuing title deeds to landowners promotes tenure security and opens regional development and investment avenues.
Y News understands that rural Kenya, for instance, has its fair share of land and settlement-related challenges, including landlessness, insecure land tenure, and, notably, the historical squatter problem, especially in the Coast region.
All we know about ‘Ardhi Caucus on Secure Land Tenure for All’
To address this issue, land sector actors in Kenya have announced the launch of a Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Strategy tomorrow, Friday, July 19, 2024, at a Nairobi hotel.
Dubbed the ‘Ardhi Caucus on Secure Land Tenure for All,’ the platform aims to enhance land tenure security for all women and men in Kenya, contributing to poverty reduction, building climate resilience, and overall sustainable development.
Ardhi Caucus is a joint initiative between Landesa and Kenya Land Alliance (KLA).
Y News has since established Landesa as a global NGO that champions and works to secure land rights for millions of the world’s poorest, mostly rural women and men, to provide opportunities and promote social justice.
On the other hand, Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) is an umbrella network of Civil Society Organizations and individuals committed to effective advocacy for reforming policies and laws governing land in Kenya.
“Ardhi Caucus will operate around five thematic areas: Protection, Recognition and Promotion of Communally held Land, tenure security for smallholder farmers, access to Land Justice, Women Land Rights, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation,” reads a statement from the Caucus seen by Y News.
What Ardhi Caucus will offer
• Solutions to land governance challenges caused by the silo approach to land sector management by fostering a united front and harnessing resources through a well-coordinated approach.
• By involving both state and non-state actors, the Caucus seeks to leverage each other’s technical expertise, capacities, and strengths to expedite the actualisation of gender-transformative, community-responsive, and inclusive land tenure security.
What are Ardhi Caucus objectives
• To become thought leaders on matters of land tenure by collectively developing evidence-based action research studies while bolstering the capacities of the different stakeholders towards the effective realisation of tenure security.
• To mobilise resources towards achieving gender transformative land tenure security and establish remedy mechanisms towards facilitating land tenure security in different contexts.
During the Caucus’s launch, the expected guests will include representatives from the National Land Commission (NLC), Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, NEMA, academia, over 30 CSOs, and members of the community from various parts of Kenya. In all, there will be about 150 participants.
